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The Arab English Language Press. What They Are Saying.

America’s insanity cannot last forever

The Palestine Telegraph – The hired media agents of influence continue to poison the masses of war against Iran. Every day, there are more irrational and abstract accusations of the nuclear development program in Iran. For sure, the large segments of mankind do not believe in these theories and vicious propaganda onslaught. Obama needs Israeli lobbyists support and money to get re-elected. To Obamas mind, America and Israel do have historical bonds of friendship but in a global context they are disconnected to the rest of the international community. America and Israel are alone, not part of the global thinking and agenda for peace and co-existence. America and Israel need a political and intellectual challenge to come to terms with peace and security but the oil-soaked blood-tainted authoritarian and intellectually sold out oil producing Arab leaders cannot provide one.

Salafis determined to establish Islamic Emirate in Gaza

Asharq Al-Awsat, UK – A prominent Salafi jihadist based in the Gaza Strip has stressed that his group’s efforts of establishing an Islamic Emirate in the Gaza Strip continues despite the severe blows handed to them at the hands of Israel and the Hamas Movement. “We always are planning to establish God’s Sharia on earth. This is the duty of every Muslim. Our project, God willing, exists, and the day will come when the mujahidin will fulfil their project.” Abu Abdul-Muhajir told Asharq Al-Awsat. Abu Abdul-Muhajir blasted the Hamas movement for what he described as the continued detention and “summoning campaign” against members of his movement, despite the recent Israeli attack that killed prominent Salafi official, Hisham al-Suaydani (Abu al-Walid al-Maqdisi).

Iran atrocities probe begins

Gulf Daily News, Bahrain – A landmark tribunal investigating crimes committed by the current Iranian regime against political prisoners in the 1980s starts in The Hague today. The Iran Tribunal will hear firsthand accounts of atrocities committed against Iranian citizens under a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, which is said to have resulted in between 5,000 and 30,000 citizens being tortured and executed for holding beliefs that conflicted with the regime. Prosecutor John Cooper QC will describe how people were tied to a bed with a dirty sock stuffed in their mouth and had the soles of their feet whipped with electric cables; flogged and beaten; forced to squat in small boxes known as “the grave”; deprived of sleep; made to stand for days on end; sexually abused; and suspended in the air by their arms, which were twisted behind their back, for hours until their shoulders snapped. He will also tell judges that inmates were forced to watch fellow prisoners being tortured, were tortured in the presence of their own children and were executed by hanging or firing squad, while others died from the torture itself. The tribunal will hear how children were imprisoned with their parents and were even executed as political prisoners, the youngest being just 11 years old, while Death Commissions grilled prisoners about their religious faith and hanged more then 5,000 in the space of a few months. “It is a stain on the collective conscience of humanity to deny these scars a way to heal and these nightmares a means to subside,” Mr Cooper says in his opening submission. “This is why the prosecution now moves at this phase to prove that responsibility for these grave, widespread and systematic violations of human rights lies with the highest echelons of the Islamic Republic of Iran, on whose express orders they were carried out.” Eight human rights judges will oversee the hearings, although Iran has refused to co-operate with the Tribunal despite being invited to participate.

Four killed following Muslim protests in Ethiopia

Arab News, Saudi Arabia – Four people, including one police officer, were killed in Ethiopia Sunday as protesters attacked a police station where Muslim demonstrators were being held, an official said Tuesday. “One police officer was killed while two police officers sustained injuries, and three members of the (protester’s) group were killed during the violence,” government spokesperson Shimeles Kemal told AFP. The attack occurred Sunday in Gerba in the Amhara region, after demonstrators gathered to protest what they call undemocratic elections of the Supreme Council on Islamic Affairs, Ethiopia’s highest Muslim representative body. Shimeles said the group attacked the police station with firearms and machetes after the arrest and tried to “forcefully release their members.”

Sudan accuses Israel of air raid, threatens payback

The Daily Star, Lebanon – Israeli missiles struck a military factory and killed two people in the Sudanese capital Wednesday, the government said, 18 months after alleging a similar raid by the Jewish state. “We think Israel did the bombing,” Culture and Information Minister Ahmad Bilal Osman told a news conference. “We reserve the right to react at a place and time we choose.” The military and Foreign Ministry in Israel, which has long accused Khartoum of serving as a base for militants from the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, refused to comment… Evidence pointing to Israel was found among remnants of the explosives, he said.

Ahmadinejad prison visit vetoed again

The Gulf Times, Qatar – Iran’s judicial authorities have again denied a request by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Evin prison where his top media adviser is serving time, Iranian media reported yesterday, in another sign the president’s power is on the wane. Ahmadinejad’s request was seen as linked to the detention of his press adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr who was jailed for six months in September for publishing an article deemed offensive to public decency. The judiciary turned down his first request to visit on Sunday, saying it was not in Iran’s best interests for him to spend time on such a visit at a time when the country is facing an economic crisis. Ahmadinejad replied accusing the judiciary of unconstitutional conduct. “Taking into account the recent letter and circumstances, on no account will a visit to Evin prison be allowed without co-ordination,” Sadeq Larijani, the head of the judiciary, said yesterday, Iran’s student news agency reported. “The notion that the president has the right to supervise other powers (the judiciary) is completely false,” he said.

Curfew imposed in Indian city

Khaleej Times, UAE – Police imposed a curfew Thursday after Hindu-Muslim clashes during the Indian festival season in the state of Uttar Pradesh, near where deadly religious riots flared 20 years ago. The curfew was clamped on parts of Faizabad city following communal violence over the immersion of Hindu idols in a river on Wednesday to mark the festival of Durga Puja. Officers used tear gas and fired live rounds in the air to control the fighting. At least nine people including one policeman were injured as vehicles were set alight and shops damaged. Faizabad is next to Ayodhya, home to the Babri mosque that was razed in 1992 by Hindu zealots. Subsequent riots killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, in some of the worst sectarian violence since Indian independence. “My government will hunt down people out to disrupt the communal harmony in the state,” Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav told reporters in the state capital Lucknow. At least 12 people have been killed in the last seven months in inter-religious violence in Uttar Pradesh, raising fears that tensions between Hindus and Muslims are increasing in the state.

UN ‘alarmed’ after new Myanmar unrest

Aljazeera, Qatar – A new wave of sectarian unrest in western Myanmar has left at least 20 dead, officials say, sparking an exodus of “thousands” of people and prompting the UN to express its grave concern. Hundreds of homes were burnt on Thursday in the fresh outburst of unrest in Rakhine state, which was convulsed by Buddhist-Muslim clashes in June that tore apart communities and left tens of thousands of mainly Muslim Rohingya languishing in basic camps. More than 100 people have now been killed in the state, according to the authorities, which have imposed emergency rule in the face of continued explosive tension in the region… The UN issued a statement saying it was “gravely concerned” about the resurgence in violence and called for calm in the region… About 75,000 people are estimated to still be displaced following the June unrest, and the UN expressed fears over large numbers of people fleeing to the “already overcrowded” camps near the state capital of Sittwe.